Hollywood’s Tough Year

“The decline in home movie sales comes after a fallow year at the box-office. Despite the success of the latest Transformers, Harry Potter and Pirates of the Caribbean movies – which each grossed more than $1-billion worldwide – total ticket sales fell by 4.5 per cent, although the decline was slightly offset by higher ticket prices. Revenues from ticket sales fell $390-million to $10.2-billion, a fall of 3.7 per cent on 2010, according to BoxOffice.com, which tracks box office performance.”

Photographer Jan Groover, 68

“Among the first photographers to be embraced in the late ’70s and early ’80s by New York galleries (Sonnabend and Robert Miller) previously more disposed toward painters and sculptors, she also became in 1987 one of a handful of women to ever receive a solo show of her photographs at the Museum of Modern Art.”

Salman Rushdie’s Impending Visit To India Becomes Political Battleground

Still outraged over The Satanic Verses after 24 years, a major Muslim seminary in northern India has demanded that Rushdie’s visa to enter the country for this month’s Jaipur Literary Festival. (Rushdie holds an Indian passport.) The question has become an issue in upcoming elections in one of India’s largest states.